Eviction
by nagareboshi23
Summary: Lucy is at risk of being evicted from her home, when she resorts to a simple mission on the Fairy Tail mission board that promised enough money for her to stay in her flat for the next month. Her teammate and friend Natsu is dragged along, although something strange develops on their journey.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Hey guys, this is my VERY first piece of fan-fiction. Please leave reviews and favourites. I hope to update this story frequently and I _should_ be able to seeing as it's Christmas holidays! ^.^ Other than that, enjoy!

Lucy had a relatively full and happy life, with her extensive family at the guild as well as her close friends and teammates. Although everything seemed relatively fine on the surface, Lucy had several prominent problems lying behind her facade of smiles and joyful laughter. Top of the list was rent. The heft 70, 000 jewels a month gradually began to empty out Lucy's finances as she began resorting to money saved up for food and entertainment in order to remain under a roof and not out in the street. Food wasn't that great of a problem as she could always go to the guild for sanctuary if she was absolutely starved, but there was nowhere else to live if she lost this apartment. Lucy also had no access to her family's fortune as she had long since forsaken the Heartphilia name and status as she ran away from her father's obsession with work and lack of affection.

As she made the trek towards the guild along the river, the same boatmen would call out, "Be careful Lucy! That's dangerous!" Lucy smiled and waved at them. Nearing the guild, all she could hear was wood splintering and snapping, and the shouts of members as they fought amongst each other. She sighed. Another normal day at the Fairy Tail guild. Pushing open the great wooden doors, the first thing Lucy noticed was a pink head sticking out above the rest of the brawlers, while facing off against a black-haired, half-naked man on top of a table.

"Come at me shit-head!" Natsu challenged. He stooped low, preparing to jump at Gray with his hands ablaze.

"Right back at ya flame-brain!" The two clashed and were soon enveloped in a flurry of punches and kicks.

Lucy allowed herself a small smile despite her situation. The incessant fighting within Fairy Tail was what created the friendly and lax atmosphere. She walked, or rather, dodged and ducked her way over to the bar, where Mirajane was serving customers food and drinks. After seating herself at one of the bar stools, her mind immediately went back to her problem. Rent. She didn't have money, and was going to be evicted within the next month if she didn't pay up. Mira was like an older sister to Lucy, always listening to her woes and problems, even when she was extremely tired herself. Mirajane always seemed to be able to read Lucy's mind and today was no exception.

"Having trouble paying up your rent again, Lu?" Lucy didn't mind the nicknames, afterall, she did call Mirajane, Mira, all the time.

"You bet..." Lucy trailed off as she let her cheek rest on the cool benchtop. Mira passed her a glass of water and Lucy drank it with a thank you.

"You know, you could always stay here at the guild. I mean, I can sort out a bed and room or something for you, and you won't be far away from food." Mirajane suggested. Lucy turned around to look at the fighting that was continuing in full force.

"For some reason, I don't think I would be able to sleep if I stayed here," Lucy half-joked. It wasn't that she didn't like the guild, or the people that were in the guild, but sometimes it did get a bit rowdy and she didn't like the idea of men randomly bursting into her room as they threw punches at each other. Lucy sighed. She would figure something out.

Walking over to the job board, she browsed over potential jobs that could save her from her predicament. Lucy couldn't take any subtle or quiet jobs as she knew that Natsu would most likely tag along seeing as they were teammates, and Natsu was the mortal enemy of low-key and non-combat related missions. Most of the jobs pinned up on the board were administrative, and mostly requested help filing papers or looking after a child. Knowing Natsu, rather than properly look after a little kid, he would most likely burn down the entire building.

Deciding to chance it, Lucy grabbed the only job that could cover her expenses, one with a 150,000 jewel reward (75,000 for Lucy if she was to split 50-50 with Natsu). All they needed to do was stamp out sudden Vulcan aggression in a remote mountain village. Sounded easy enough. The pay wasn't bad either.

As Lucy pushed and shoved her way towards Natsu, she cringed again as the pink-haired boy threw taunts and jeered at the half-naked ,as always, Gray.

"Hehe, couldn't dodge that one could ya, dimwit." Natsu roared at Gray.

"HEY, it's not my fault Gajeel got in the bloody way!" Gray shouted back. Gajeel shot Gray an evil look and seemed as if he was about to pounce and pummel the living daylights out of him.

"What's that look for, pin boy?" Gray leered out at Gajeel. He was asking for it. Pissing Gajeel off wasn't a good strategy if you wanted to prolong your life.

"I'm going to smash the living shit out of your brains if you don't shut up," Gajeel threatened Gray. This was quickly getting out of hand.

Lucy decided that enough was enough and stepped in. "Gray, pants and shirt. Gajeel, go look after Levy or something. Natsu, come out with me."

All the males knew how scary Lucy was when she got angry, so they spat dirty looks at each other before leaving. Natsu followed Lucy outside and angrily scratched his head.

"We were just getting to the good part! Why'd you have to stop the fight?" Whining seemed to be Natsu's forte whenever Lucy put on her authorative tone. Sighing, Lucy realized there was no point in getting angry at him, as he was _Natsu_ after all. Adolescent on the outside, but 5 years old at heart.

"I've got a mission. Nothing hard, just to clear out a couple of Vulcans who've been running rampant in this mountain village," Lucy explained. She hoped to the Lord that Natsu wouldn't run riot and destroy the entire mountain, along with the village.

"Hn, sure. Just give me a moment to get prepared, and we're walking there, just so you know" Natsu seemed to agree but his last phrase ticked Lucy off a bit. Although she was fully aware of Natsu's tendency to puke when on transportation, she was not walking hundreds of kilometres, not even for 75, 000 jewel.

"We're taking a train."

"Ugh. Fine. But it won't be my fault if I throw up on your shoes again"

Lucy liked it when Natsu huffed after accepting her demands.

It was cute.


	2. Chapter 2

**_A/N: _**_Second chapter to my very first fanfic! I was feeling a little bored so i tried my very first attempt at a little bit of romance keke :3. Won't be updating daily, I might get out a chapter every week or something like that XD. Enjoooyyyy __  
_

Natsu felt like he was dying. Each time the train hit a little bump, he came just that little bit closer to throwing up all over the compartment that he, Lucy and Happy stayed in. Every minute on a train was a minute in Hell for our favourite fire-breathing dragon slayer.

Lucy was fine for the most part, although she had a tough time convincing herself that Natsu wouldn't dare throw up on her. Her jacket was new and she didn't want someone puking on it the first day she wore it. Sighing, she placed her right elbow up against the window sill, and shoved her chin into the ball of her palm. Rent... rent... rent... 70,000 jewels to stay under a roof for the next month. The passing grassland was soon replaced by a frozen tundra, and this only served to dampen Lucy's mood even further. While Gray would probably have felt right at home, half-naked in this environment, Lucy wasn't too fond of the idea.

"Blergh." Natsu's purple face turned a slight shade of green as he heaved up the contents of his lunch. Happy was next to his friend as usual, patting his head and muttering some comforting words, although most of his comments somehow related to fish.

"Natsu, when you get better, can you get me some fish?"

"Natsu, can we go fishing after we get off the train?"

Natsu's simple response came in a low grunt and a lengthy "Bleerghh...", before quickly passing out.

-X-X-X-

Grinding to a halt, the train arrived at the trio's destination. Natsu immediately perked up and stopped drooling all over the red leather seats of the train compartment.

"We've arrived?" Natsu asked, still in a daze after his gut-wrenching 'ordeal'.

"Aye, sir!" Happy shouted as he waddled his way out of the train.

"If you're done puking then get off the train. We've got a lot of work to do." Natsu pricked up at Lucy's authorative tone. She rarely talked like that unless she was really mad or gloomy.

"Something on your mind?"

"No. Just hurry up. We still have to check-in to our hotel and we need to finish this mission by tomorrow night."

Natsu heaved a lengthy sigh as he dragged his limp body out of the compartment and into the fre-... frozen air outside. The cold temporarily froze Natsu's body, but he simply concentrated and brought up the intensity of the flames within his body in order to warm himself. People stared at him, wondering how he managed to survive in such temperatures with only a vest, shorts, and his trusty dragon-scale scarf. Lucy was an entirely different case. The incessant chattering of her teeth could be likened to a woodpecker trying to dig open the wood of an oak tree to get to a worm.

"Cold?" Natsu asked. The answer was obvious but Natsu was a bit too thick to realize how pointless his question was.

"Y-Y-Yes. D-Don't worry, I-I'll get u-u-used to it," Lucy said with a feigned smile.

They walked on for a bit more and soon, the amount of people around began to thin out until the only people walking on the street were our trusty Fairy Tail trio. (Don't forget Happy!)

"Come here." Natsu grunted. Lucy looked at him inquisitively for a second and was slightly surprised to see a little bit of red on his cheeks. At first she didn't really comprehend what he wanted. Then she saw the flame in his hand and she hurried to the source of warmth. The calming flame brought warmth to her entire body and she felt the incessant chattering of her teeth begin to fade away.

"Better?" Looking down at Lucy, Natsu grinned the Natsu grin. Lucy marvelled at how his smile seemed to make his face wider by almost two inches.

"I'm still a bit cold," Lucy was lying. She was perfectly fine, but for some reason wanted to be closer to Natsu.

Natsu extinguished his flame for a second, bringing back the biting cold to Lucy's face. He rested his arm over her neck and hugged her into his vest. Her eyes shot open for a bit before they sunk into the comfort of the heat that radiated from Natsu's body.

Lucy felt a sudden warmth in her cheeks separate to the warmth generated by Natsu's flame magic. She realized she was blushing, but she didn't know why. This protective side to Natsu made Lucy fully appreciate his presence almost all the time. Lucy couldn't quite put her finger on why, out of all the times Natsu has helped ease her discomfort, now would be the time when she felt herself react differently. Maybe it was the cold that brought them closer together. But the warmth was so comforting that Lucy just wanted to melt into Natsu and-

"You two lllllllllllllllllllike each other!" Happy suddenly said, taking special care to roll his L's for extra effect. Lucy snapped out of her trance and her mind heaved a sigh of disappointment. She had forgotten about the little flying cat that had been with them the whole time.

"SHUT UP CAT!" Both Natsu and Happy flinched, although both of them broke out into loud laughter soon after. Lucy's lips turned upwards slightly at the corners.

-X-X-X-

"What do you mean, there's only one room left!" Lucy's eyes turned red as she raged at the receptionist in the lobby of their hotel and accomodation for the next two days. Natsu flopped his tired body onto a couch in the lobby of the hotel and heaved a sigh of relief as his body was allowed a bit of rest. Travelling on vehicles sure took a toll on his body.

"I'm sorry miss, but all the other rooms have been booked out. Can't you share the room with your boyfriend?" the receptionist asked as she pointed at Natsu. "We have a double bed in the room but there's also a relatively large couch if you prefer to be... separate."

Lucy flushed a little at the suggestion, but quickly re-composed herself and snatched the room key from the receptionist's hand.

"This better be one big bloody room." Lucy stormed off in a submissive fit of rage towards the trio's room.

Natsu and Happy stole glances at each other and shrugged.


End file.
